Advanced Materials Research Vols 732-733 (2013) pp 98-102 Online: 2013-08-16

© (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.732-733.98

Analysis and Solution of Hydrogen-cooled Generator Hydrogen Purity

Decline

Yanli Xu,Hui Xie,Hairong Li and Wenlong Wu

Haepc electric power research institute,zhengzhou,China
150554849@qq.com

Keywords: generator; hydrogen purity; sealing oil system; DCS

Abstract. In generators operation, the hydrogen purity is an important monitoring indictor. The
change of the purity affects unit safety operation directly. Hydrogen purity of one #2 generator unit
drop quickly. Determining how to find the main factors is the main objective. Primarily, it was
analyzed that the main reason of hydrogen purity decrease was the air enter the sealing oil system.
Though analyzing DCS history curve, as well as temperature detection test, channeling oil test, and
checking the system pressure, finally there were two reasons, one is fill oil valve leakage fault, the two
is the oil pressure difference of hydrogen side and air side in balance valve are too large, causing the
oil channeling from air side to hydrogen side.

Introduction
Hydrogen is a colorless, odorless gas.Under standard situation, hydrogen density is 1/14 of air, heat
capacity is 7 times of the air, which makes hydrogen with advantages of low flow resistance, fast
diffusion velocity and good thermal conductivity [1].Therefore, hydrogen is widely applied in modern
large turbo-generator set as a good cooling medium. To ensure the generator security, economic,
stable running, it is very necessary to strictly guarantee the purity of the hydrogen [2, 3].
Hydrogen purity unqualified will lead to local overheating of generator component. Harmful gas will
cause insulation aging and corrosion of metal, which directly affect the safety of unit. The density of
mixed gas in generator increases with the drop of hydrogen purity, which could cause the ventilation
friction loss increase and the efficiency of the generator decrease [4]. If hydrogen purity is drop to the
explosive range (less than 95%Vol), which may cause generator hydrogen explosion, and the
consequences be unbearable to contemplate. It is extremely wasteful that the generator is operating
long-term under the condition of low hydrogen purity, for sewage and hydrogen supply is used to
improve hydrogen purity. This has great potential safety hazard and certain pecuniary loss [5, 6].
Therefore, it is very important to analysis and solves the cause of hydrogen-cooled generator
hydrogen purity decline.

Description of the accident

The generator of a power plant #2 unit is produced by Dongfang electric machinery Co., LTD, the
model is QFSN-300-2-20, and the cooling model is water-hydrogen-hydrogen. Since #2 unit was
completed overhaul and put into operation on July 23, 2010, the generator hydrogen purity decreased
slowly, from 98.8% to 96.3%.In order to ensure hydrogen purity in the normal range, 20 cubic meters
hydrogen was replacement per day on average, which is 5 times of the normal. At the same time, the
hydrogen in generator was purified once every 2 hours. But the hydrogen purity still maintained about
96%, which was closed to the alarm value. Hydrogen purity low increased the operator's labor
intensity, also seriously affected the safe and economic operation of the unit, which was urgent to be
solved [7].

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 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 732-733 99

Analysis the cause of generator hydrogen purity decline

Many factors affecting hydrogen purity decline in the generator, mainly are discussed in the following
aspects[8].
(1) Accuracy of hydrogen purity meter
Online hydrogen purity meter can realize real-time monitoring of hydrogen purity, and play a great
role in generator system with high accuracy and precision [9]. After verification, the #2 unit on-line
hydrogen purity meter was accurate and reliable.
(2) The quality of new hydrogen
Hydrogen of #2 unit is supplied by hydrogen generation station. Through repeatedly sampling
detection, hydrogen purity and humidity from hydrogen generation station were consist with
generator hydrogen make-up mouth, which are 99.7% and -23.76℃，all in the qualified range.
(3) The moisture content of generator sealing oil
By viewing the analysis report of unit sealing oil, the moisture content was less than 100mg/L, and
was qualified.
(4) Generator hydrogen purity
Use hydrogen purity meter with Relation RA601HP type to detect the hydrogen purity and
paramagnetic oxygen meter with PMA11 type to detect the oxygen content in hydrogen. The test
results were shown in table 1 , that small amounts of oxygen do exist in hydrogen. As we known,
oxygen is the source of air. Conversion based on the oxygen volume accounted for 20.6% of the air,
the result that the air content added hydrogen purity was very close to 100%, so can confirm that the
main factors affecting the purity of hydrogen in generator was air.
Tab. 1 The test results of hydrogen purity and oxygen content of #2 unit
Test spot hydrogen,% oxygen,% air,% Add result,%
CO2 emptying valve on 0
96.34 1.15 5.48 101.82
meters gas control station
In this table, the air volume was converted based on the
oxygen volume accounted for 20.6% of the air. Oxygen
Remarks contents due to the geographical position and precipitation
characteristics of nitrogen and oxygen dissolved in the oil are
differences, these dates are only for reference.

Analysis the source of air in generator

Sealing oil system of generator
Sealing oil system is mainly composed of air side seal oil pump, hydrogen side seal oil pump,
hydrogen side oil return tank, oil tank, annular return tank, balance valve, differential pressure valve
and solenoid valve[10]. Anyone component operation fault may lead to air enter the oil sealing system,
and cause the generator hydrogen purity decline.

The change trend graph of seal oil tank level

Generator distributed control system (DCS) is a multi computer monitoring system that based on the
computer, communication and screen display technology, has realized acquisition, control, protection
and share of the production process data. The application of DCS is very important to modern plants,
realizes the real-time monitoring and date sharing of the whole production process, guarantees the
efficiency and safe operation of the power plant. From DCS curve, the historical operation status of
the unit can be observed directly, and the reasons of problems can be found out quickly.
The set value of #2 unit hydrogen side seal oil tank level is 450mm-650mm. If oil level up to 650mm,
oil drain valve of hydrogen side sealing tank opened, drained oil to 500mm, then closed. If oil level
low to 450mm, oil fill valve of hydrogen side sealing tank opened and filled oil to 600mm, then
closed. Normally, automatic fill and drain the oil of the highest level is 500mm-600mm.
100 Thermal, Power and Electrical Engineering

Figure. 1 showed the change trend graph of #2 generator unit hydrogen side seal oil tank level from 12
to 14 December 2010. As you can see, the oil level mostly changed between 500mm to 650mm. This
showed that the oil drain valve was always in the state of draining oil. By calculation, the average
cycle of filling oil was 2h, which showed that the generator filled oil frequently, and may lead to air
gathered in the seal oil system. According to the generator system structure, reasons for this situation
were the following two:

Fig.1 The change trend graph of #2 generator unit hydrogen side seal oil tank level
from 12 to 14 December 2010.
(Abscissa: time, min; Ordinate: oil level, ml)

First reason was fill oil valve leakage, namely fill oil valve occurred not tightly closed in the absence
of action, resulting the oil leakage always from air side to hydrogen side oil tank, and the oil level
increased. At the same time, a large amounts of air got into hydrogen side with seal oil, resulting the
latter air content increased, and generator hydrogen purity decreased.
Second reason was the hydrogen side oil volume return increased. The air side oil pressure is higher
than the hydrogen side, and air side seal oil through sealing watts flowed to the hydrogen side, leading
to the hydrogen side oil seal level rise. Then the air in the air side oil directly mixed into the hydrogen
side oil and leaded to the decrease of hydrogen purity [11].

The temperature test of fill oil system

On December 14th at 16:00 PM, the fill oil system temperature using infrared thermometer was listed
in table 2.
Tab. 2 The temperature of various parts of the fill oil system
manual door of supply
Test spot Fill oil valve Fill oil pipe
bypass
state lock —— lock
surface on surface on surface on surface on surface on
Test item the front the behind the zero the front the behind
pipe pipe meter pipe pipe
Temperature（℃） 37.0 37.0 36.6 23.0 23.0

As you can see from Table 2, manual door of supply bypass was normally closed, and the surface
temperatures of front and behind pipe all were close to room temperature. But the surface
temperatures of front and behind pipe of the fill oil valve and zero meters were all close, about 37 ℃
, which displayed that the seal oil flew from fill oil pipe into the hydrogen side sealed tank.
DCS curve showed the fill oil valve was closed, with the detection results of table 2, the conclusion be
drawn that fill oil solenoid valve of #2 generator system existed leakage fault, which was one main
reason of hydrogen purity decline[12].
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 732-733 101

Generator seal oil leakage test

Fig. 2 The change trend graph of #2 generator unit hydrogen side seal oil tank level
(Abscissa: time, min; Ordinate: oil level, ml)

After confirmed that in addition to sealing bush, the hydrogen and air side oil has no channeling
possibility, closed fill and drained valve, sealing bush leakage test was obtained by observing the oil
level of hydrogen side seal oil tank.The results were shown in Fig. 2:
(1)Within 60 minutes of 16:05 to 17:15, seal oil level decreased from 640mm to 500mm, and the
drop speed was 140mm/h. It was visible rapidly and a large amount of oil leakage.
(2)The oil level of hydrogen seal oil tank kept 10 min at highest 640mm and then declined to
500mm, which indicated that oil flowed from hydrogen side to air side at the sealing bush. Although
this was conflicted with inference conclusion that oil flowed from air side to hydrogen side, the
leakage oil volume of fill oil valve was greater than the hydrogen side channeling to the air side oil.
Evaluation of individual fill and drained oil cycle was about 1.5h, which was consistent with that of
DCS curve.

Pressure analysis of sealing oil system

The hydrogen pressure and seal pressure by checking DCS history curve are listed in table 3.

Tab.3 The hydrogen pressure and seal oil pressure of #2 generator unit [Kpa]
Air side oil Hydrogen side Air side oil Hydrogen side
Hydrogen
Position pressure of oil pressure of pressure of oil pressure of
pressure
steam end steam end exciter end exciter end
#2 unit
296 369 371 366 370
on-line

Seen from the dates in Table 3, hydrogen pressure were normal, but the oil pressure difference of
hydrogen side and air side were all greater than procedure control values. These could make the
sealing oil flow from the hydrogen side channeling to the air side, and the air could be gathered in air
side, causing hydrogen purity reduction.

Summary
Though analyzing DCS history curve, as well as temperature detection test, channeling oil test, and
checking the system pressure, finally there were two sources of air in sealing oil system, one was fill
oil valve leakage fault, the two was the oil pressure difference of hydrogen side and air side in balance
valve were too large, causing the oil channeling from air side to hydrogen side.
During the unit overhaul downtime, plant engineer carefully examined the seal oil system, determined
the fill oil valve was closed incompletely. After adjusting the valve has been restored to normal. After
further inspection, plant engineer found that the big gap between seal tiles due to wear, and were
needed to replace a new one，which was consistent with the above analysis.
102 Thermal, Power and Electrical Engineering

References
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[10] Liguo Yang: Electric Power Construction (in Chinese). Vol. 22 (2001). p. 24
[11] Jianjun Wu: Electric Power (in Chinese). Vol. 38 (2005), p. 26
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(2009), p. 49
Thermal, Power and Electrical Engineering
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Analysis and Solution of Hydrogen-Cooled Generator Hydrogen Purity Decline

10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.732-733.98